Despite the sluggish economy, Dallas will be flashing lots of dough this weekend.

That’s because the National Money Show is coming to the Dallas Convention Center. The show, an exhibition and gathering of dealers and collectors, includes more than $100 million in rare coins and currency. It opens Thursday and runs through Saturday.

Sponsored by the American Numismatic Association, the show offers visitors a chance to see seldom-displayed treasures from public and private collections.

Among its highlights are 79 early American gold coins from the collection of the late Harry W. Bass Jr., a Dallas business executive and philanthropist. The Bass display, estimated to be worth $8.3 million, includes a complete set of $3 gold coins struck between 1854 and 1889; and an 1804 Eagle (a $10 gold piece) that is, according to organizers of the show, one of only four of its kind known to exist.

More than 500 professional coin and currency dealers will be at the three-day show, buying and selling items. Many of them are happy to provide free appraisals to visitors who bring in old coins and bills.

In addition, Heritage Auctions of Dallas is conducting a public auction (live and online) of collectible coins in conjunction with the gathering.

“Money is history you can hold in your hands,” said Tom Hallenbeck, president of the American Numismatic Association.

In particular, he said, the group is pleased to be sponsoring “a Dallas homecoming” for the “legendary” Bass collection. He called those items that will be on display “some of America’s most important and historic coins.”

Bass was born in 1927 in Oklahoma City to Wilma and Harry W. Bass Sr., an oil and gas producer and pipeline operator. The family and its businesses moved to Dallas in 1932.

The younger Bass attended the University of Texas and Southern Methodist University before serving in the U.S. Navy for two years during World War II. By the time he was 30, he was actively involved in running a variety of companies with interests in banking and insurance as well as oil services.

He became an avid and expert coin collector. In 2000, two years after his death, the Harry W. Bass Jr. Foundation loaned his world-class collection to the American Numismatic Association Money Museum in Colorado.

“Now,” said Hallenbeck, “some of the gold coins from this amazing collection will be publicly displayed in Dallas for the first time.”

GO & DO: National Money Show

The National Money Show is 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Dallas Convention Center, 650 S. Griffin St.

Admission is $6 a day. Children 12 and under get in free. So do members of the American Numismatic Association. There’s a $2 discount coupon at the show’s website, nationalmoneyshow.com.

Details on Heritage’s rare coin auction are at ha.com.

A biography of the late Harry W. Bass Jr., which explores his passion for numismatics, is at the website of the philanthropic foundation created in his name: harrybassfoundation.org.